


The Paper Ballerina

by deskclutter



Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: F/M, Gen, Happy Ending, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-24
Updated: 2010-06-24
Packaged: 2017-10-10 06:27:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/96621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deskclutter/pseuds/deskclutter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fakir, on ducks and writing and his life after the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Paper Ballerina

**Title:** The Paper Ballerina  
**Day/Theme:** October 5th / rejected goods  
**Series:** Princess Tutu  
**Character/Pairing:** Ahiru/Fakir, Autor  
**Rating:** PG

  
"Why do you work so hard to turn her back into a human?" Autor finally asked in exasperation one autumn morning. "You could do so many other things with your talent! Write _real_ stories full of thematic significance, and drama, and _depth_! But you spend all day writing trivial stories about _ducks_! Ducks! What is the symbolic meaning behind a duck?! The gobbler of bread come to devour mankind's last scrap of talent?! Now if _I_ had been the one to inherit the family birthright..."

Fakir slammed the book shut. "Moron. You know better than almost anyone in this town what her significance was in the story."

"But the story is over! The _point_\--"

"The point is that she saved us all, and she's still just a duck."

"Well, that's what happens to secondary characters!"

"Until they get their sequel," said Fakir. "Don't forget, I'm writing it, not you."

  
There once was a tin soldier who had but one leg, for there had not been enough tin in the spoon he and his brothers had been crafted from to finish the last. One morning the little boy to whom the soldiers belonged lifted the soldiers out to play with them. The one-legged tin soldier caught sight of a paper ballerina as he stood straight-backed and stiff-limbed.

She stood on the mantelpiece with one leg tucked high in the air so that the tin soldier thought she had only one leg, just like himself. For her beauty and for her likeness to himself, he fell in love with her.

 

"Don't listen to Autor," he told Ahiru later.

"Q-Qua?" she squeaked. He shook his head. She was still as bad a liar when she couldn't even mouth proper words.

"I know you were listening," he informed her. "Ahiru. I said to you, 'Let's return to who we really are', didn't I?" She nodded slowly. "Listen now, all right? I'm a writer because I was a useless knight. But you were never useless to begin with."

"QUACK!" she protested. "Qua quack q-quack!"

He bopped her gently on the head with his quill. "I told you to listen, idiot. Princess Tutu did what she was meant to do. She returned his heart to the Prince. And Ahiru saved him through her dance. You have always been able to dance." He smiled wryly. "I was never made to fight. But I was taught to dance, and I would like to have the chance to dance with you again. Will you let me try?"

  
When he had passed many trials later, the tin soldier melted in the fire, and the paper ballerina was blown in after him. They found a melted tin heart in the ashes when the fire cooled, but no one knows if the soldier would have loved the ballerina less had he known she was not like him at all.

  
"This is called a sequel," said Fakir, looking down at his princess. "I've come to dislike tragic endings, so I'm going to write us a happy one."


End file.
